LEARN KOREAN (한국어) [GRAMMAR] #1

TO WHAT DEGREE/HOW MUCH

In addition to "when" and "where" adverbs, many adverbs can tell us to what degree something is being done. These adverbs usually (but not always) end in 'ly' in English:

I ran really quickly
I ate fast
I left immediately
I often meet my friend on Thursday
I eat too much sometimes

When adding these types of adverbs to sentences, no particle needs to be attached.

While other adverbs are generally free to be placed anywhere in a sentence, adverbs like this that indicate a degree to which something is done are typically placed immediately before the verb. For example:

저는 저의 친구를 자주 만나요 - I meet my friend often
저는 밥을 많이 먹었어요 - I ate a lot of food (rice)
저는 집에 바로 갔어요 - I went home immediately

Also, many of these words are just transferred from their adjective forms to create an adverb. This is done in English as well, for example:

Quick ~> Quickly
Easy ~> Easily
Quiet ~> Quietly

A lot of adverbs in Korean are simply made by adding '게' to the stem of an adjective:

Adjectives that end in 하다 are sometimes changed into adverbs by changing 하다 to 히. With most adjectives you can either add 게 to the stem or 히 with no difference in meaning. The only thing I can suggest is try to listen to which one is said in a specific situation, because even Korean people don't know the answer to the question "what is the difference between 조용하게 and 조용히":

Finally, some adjectives are changed into adverbs in a different way. When this happens, they are usually very similar to their original adjective form:

* 많다/많이 essentially have the same meaning aside from the fact that one is an adverb and one is an adjective. Most of the time, the difference between the adjective and adverb form is very clear, but with 많이/많다, the meaning is similar. See the following:

저는 많은 밥을 먹었어요 - I ate a lot of rice
저는 밥을 많이 먹었어요 - I ate a lot of rice.

Now that you know ALL that, using adverbs in sentences is easy as pie!:

저는 조용하게 먹었어요 - I ate quietly
저는 거리를 안전하게 건넜어요 - I crossed the street safely
저는 행복하게 살았어요 - I lived happily

You can, of course, use more than one adverb in a sentence. To look at the list I showed you earlier:

저는 매우 빨리 달렸어요 - I ran really quickly
저는 저의 친구를 목요일에 자주 만나요 - I often meet my friend on Thursday
저는 가끔 너무 많이 먹어요 - I eat too much sometimes

Though you can do that, using two adverbs that indicate the 'degree of something' is generally not done in Korean. For example, this would sound awkward:

저는 쉽게 빨리 거리를 건넜어요
= I easily quickly crossed the street (It's also awkward in English!)